I love Ikea. I really do. To those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting one - you're truly missing out. Now, your good old pal Gossamer here is about as redneck as they come, but I do have streaks of 'designer' in me that nature or nurture would be hard pressed to stamp out. I heard the hype, several years ago, when Portland Or first got their Ikea. I wasn't sure what an Ikea was... or whether or not it was going to be something I'd remotely enjoy. I was leaning towards the 'not going to bother' because I really dislike the whole shopping experience. But I broke down once, on a whim, and walked in... and let me tell you, it was absolutely love at first sight.


The whole store is huge, first of all, and divided into two parts. Upstairs is by far the coolest. It has a series of rat-maze like rooms set up. What I mean is you experience the illusion of walking from one living room into another and into another. You can go poke into closets, see bathrooms off bedrooms, and explore kitchens. There's sections so all the bedroom/bathroom set ups with their special cool fake walk-in closets are all grouped together, then living rooms, then office spaces, then kitchens. You can open everything, play with everything, sit on the furniture and see all the different ideas for decorating. And every inch is decorated. The little stuff found in the rooms is usually stored in bins or islands in its various sections so you can see what you like, go a few steps walking out of the illusion, and pick it up. They give you bags to carry through the store to keep your things in. If they are larger items, like tables, lamps, couches, you can write down the numbers of aisle and row in the self-serve furniture area and go get them all boxed up just before you go to check out. There's a really cool restaurant upstairs that serves a mean ceasar salad and grilled chicken plate. I cant vouch for the rest of the food, but the one time I ate there it was great....

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